


My Best Friend Is Gay?

by SinisterMind



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: GAY GAY GAY, M/M, Malum Friendship, Michael is gay, Muke - Freeform, ashton isn;t in this much, it's more michael and calum but it's still muke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-24 03:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6140251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SinisterMind/pseuds/SinisterMind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Calum used to think Michael was the straightest they came. Girls are literally throwing themselves at him, trying to get in his pants, to be the ‘groupie’ he took home that night. </p><p>And now he’s watching Michael stare dreamily at a guy across the club.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Best Friend Is Gay?

**Author's Note:**

> lol it's more malum friendship and calum trying to figure out if michael is gay

The club is crowded and Calum has lost sight of his bandmates ages ago and right now he wants to go home so he’s trying to find them. He sees Michael first, he’s standing to the side staring at the bar with a half empty drink in his hand. And then he’s gone again. 

 

But then minutes later, Calum finds him again leaning against the bar. Calum knows that stance, how he’s leaning on his right leg and left arm fiddling with something. He’s staring up at someone, a guy. Calum watches as the stranger that Michael is talking to says something and Michael throws his head back and laughs and now Calum knows exactly what he’s doing. 

 

His straight best friend is flirting with a guy. 

 

The guy has blonde hair and he’s tall, taller than Michael and Calum almost mistakes him for Luke but the guy is definitely not Luke because Luke doesn’t have green eyes or a nose ring. 

 

Calum’s turns away from his best friend when said person starts to turn around and Calum pretends to be looking for him and fakes surprise when Michael taps him on the shoulder. 

 

“Did you have fun?” Calum hears himself ask as they get back to the hotel, Ashton and Luke following close behind. 

“Yup” Michael nods “Met some people, twas good”

 

Calum is 50% sure Michael is gay. 

 

~

 

It was a Tuesday and they were getting ready to leave for tour. They were in a crowded airport waiting for their flight to Nagoya, Japan and Michael was bouncing with excitement.   
Michael had grabbed onto Calum’s arm and was tugging every so often when he couldn’t contain his excitement any longer. 

 

The memories of what happened at the club only a week prior to this was still playing in Calum’s mind. He wasn’t homophobic or anything, he’s just confused because he’s known Michael for years now and never has he expressed something like this – even though Michael doesn’t know that Calum saw. He’s just waiting for Michael to tell him. 

 

Michael tells him everything so why wouldn’t he tell Calum that he liked boys. 

 

“We can go clubbing in Japan, right?” Luke asks and Calum mentally rolled his eyes but Michael’s eyes light up at the idea and tugs again at Calums arm. 

“Yes, Luke, we can” Ashton answers not looking up from his phone. “But we’re gonna go sightseeing and see some historical sites as well”

 

Calum almost missed it, almost. He noticed that Michael’s grip had loosened and he seemed oddly quiet so he turned his head to see Michael facing away. Calum followed his gaze only to find it on a guy standing with his back to us. 

 

He wondered if Ashton and Luke could see that Michael was actually checking out a random guy’s ass in broad daylight but didn’t voice these thoughts. From a glance it looks like he’s checking out the shop he’s standing outside of but from Calum’s angle, Michael was indeed looking at a boy’s ass. 

 

Michael looked away when the guy shifted and tightened his grip on Calum’s arm and started rambling about the Pokémon centre they just HAD to visit this time round. 

 

Calum is 65% sure Michael is gay. 

 

~

 

Calum wanted to find out if Michael was gay once and for all. Call him a mean friend but forcing Michael to watching ‘Magic Mike’ with him might just do the trick. 

 

It may seem weird of Calum to ask to watch ‘Magic Mike’ with Michael but they’ve watched a lot of weird and mildly inappropriate movies together in their time so it shouldn’t be too weird. 

 

Which is how he found himself in Michael’s hotel room setting up the movie on his laptop as Michael tried to get comfy on the bed. 

 

“Magic Mike?” he asked raising an eyebrow at Calum. “We’re watching Magic Mike tonight?”

“My sister said it was good” Calum lied easily. Mali-Koa had probably said something about it being good but honestly he doesn’t listen to her a good majority of the time and brushed her off. 

“Alright then” Michael replied and pressed play. 

He was surprised that Michael gave in so easily to watching male strippers, something Calum himself had no interest in but he wanted to find out if his best friend is gay. 

 

Calum wasn’t even watching the movie, he sort of was but there was a lot of skin on the screen so his eyes kept darting over to Michael to see his reaction. He noticed that Michael seemed tense, how his Adams apple was quivering and he kept clenching and un clenching his fists. 

 

Calum’s NEVER seen him this way before. 

 

Calum wouldn’t say he enjoyed the movie, there was no plot but he figured the people who are attracted to men would enjoy it. Maybe Michael enjoyed seeing shirtless male strippers. 

 

Michael was more attractive than Channing Tatum in Calum’s opinion. 

 

“Go take a shower” Calum demanded as he turned the laptop off. Michael paled which was hard to do considering he was already so pale. 

“W-w-why?” Michael stuttered out and Calum’s eyes nearly widened at the shakiness but ignored it. 

“Because I know for a fact you haven’t showered today and I’m gonna sleep in here tonight, like old times” he told him with a grin. 

“Oh” Michael visibly relaxed and Calum felt mean as Michael quickly made his way to the bathroom. 

 

Why didn’t Calum notice all these little things? Because he wasn’t looking for them? Because he didn’t know how to look for them? Because he didn’t know what he was looking for?

 

Calum is 73% sure Michael is gay. 

 

 

~

 

 

Tokyo is a blessing. 20 minutes before sound check and they’re all bouncing off the walls after a visit around the city. Ashton and Luke are talking loudly, Michael is on his phone playing with the new Snapchat filters and Calum’s just observing everything around them. 

 

Calum’s never really felt anything for gay people. They’re just people to him – they are people – but he doesn’t get the big deal or why people are against them. They eat, sleep, poop and ‘fall in love’ just like everyone else. Michael is still Michael, still his best friend but he just wants him to tell him. 

 

He’s scared that he’ll accidentally out Michael and he doesn’t want to even think about what would happen after that. 

 

Calum moves from the couch he was on to the one where Michael is sprawled out on and lays on top of him because he did this before he started suspecting Michael is gay so why would he stop?

 

“Cal, get off me” Michael grumbled but Calum could tell he didn’t care.

“Nah” Calum replied smirking to himself. “When is sound check? I’m so bored”

“Only boring people are bored, Cal” 

“You know what I hate?” Calum continues as he rolls over slightly and stares at the ceiling still on top of Michael. 

“What?”

“When girls like show EVERYTHING off, like you know, the low cut shirts showing their tits and short as fuck skirts showing their ass” Calum replies knowing that he’s lying through his teeth because he doesn’t give a fuck what a girl wears because it’s her body not his. 

“Erm no not really” Michael shrugs, or attempts to shrug in his position “It gets hot in clubs so”

 

And suddenly memories of the club where Michael was flirting with green eyes, nose pierced Luke and wonders if Michaels ever hooked up with a guy. All those times that Michael had swollen lips at a club or messy hair and rumpled clothes, wondered if those were hook ups with a guy. Green eyes Luke was looking at Michael like he was a piece of meat and Michael was looking at him almost dreamily, like he was already in love. 

 

During sound check, Calum catches sight of a boy who was flamboyantly gay, he was the epitome of the word ‘gay’, what the straight people always think gay people are. He side eyes Michael and Michael side eyes him back and for a second Michael gives Calum a glare that clearly says ‘don’t fucking say anything or I’ll kill you’ and Calum keeps his mouth shut and focuses his attention on someone else in the crowd. 

 

Calum catches the obviously gay boy wink at Michael and out of the corner of his eyes he saw Michael trying to fight a blush and then it’s gone. 

 

Calum is 85% sure Michael is gay. 

 

~

 

Michael is in a very unhappy mood. 

 

He’s crushing Calum’s spirits, really. He told him so. 

 

“I know, I’m sorry” Michael sighed. The two are sitting on the edge of the stage and Luke and Ashton have fucked off to who knows where. “I got in an argument with Luke and now I’m all annoyed and shit”

“It’s okay, mate” Calum replied throwing an arm over his shoulder – because he did that before he suspected that his best friend is gay and he isn’t gonna stop now. “Shall we go get a drink or something?”

“Nah, I’m good” Michael leaned back on his elbows and breathed out a large puff of air. “I think I hurt Luke’s feelings”

“Oh” Calum arched an eyebrow. “What happened?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it” Michael said after a few silent pauses. 

 

Calum’s walking down the hall when he sees Luke walking towards him. Luke speeds up as he notices Calum and stops abruptly and quickly asks where Michael is. Calum directed him to the stage and Luke gave him a smile and rushed down the hall. 

 

Calum sees Ashton passed out on one of the couches, Slipknot playing through the speakers. How Ashton can sleep through Slipknot is beyond Calum’s knowledge. Calum turns the music down a bit and plops down on the opposite couch and he starts thinking. 

 

Thinking about how many same sex couples have come to their shows, how he remembers one girl holding a sign that said ‘thank you for helping me meet my girlfriend’ as she had her arm wrapped around the girls’ next to her shoulder. He wonders if Michael notices couples like that, wonders if he’s ever thought about having a boyfriend and being able to do coupley stuff with him. 

 

And then it hits him that he’s seen Michael looking at gay couples, he’s seen two men holding hands in a park and have a man tip their drink over their heads and call them homophobic slurs. 

 

He wonders if this is part of the reason he hasn’t come out. Because he’s scared of how everyone would treat him. 

 

Calum is 93% sure Michael is gay. 

 

~

 

It’s a Sunday and they have a day off in Taiwan. Michael is scrolling through his phone and taking up most of Calum’s bed. 

 

Calum didn’t have any plans apart from one thing that was going to be happening tonight. 

 

They were going to Talk. 

 

First Calum was going to try and get Michael to come out on his own but then if that failed he was going to do it himself. 

 

“Michael” Calum spoke up in a serious tone. Michael looked up from whatever he was doing and looked at his best friend. 

“Yeah?” he questioned

“We need to talk” and now that Calum’s been paying more attention, he’s noticed the little cracks in Michael’s armour. Calum changed positon so that he was cross legged on the end of the bed and indicated Michael to do the same. 

 

Michael looks nervous, he’s swallowing hard and is fidgeting and suddenly Calum is looking at the situation differently. He’s about to confront his best friend, his best friend who has girls throwing themselves at him, his best friend that is in a world famous band, about being gay.

 

“Do you have something to tell me?” Calum surprises both of them. He didn’t mean to be so blunt but his mouth had a mind of its own sometimes. Calum looks at Michael expectantly. 

Michael shakes his head, not speaking and he looks so small, like a mouse. This isn’t the Michael Calum knew, the Michael Calum knew was loud and obnoxious.

“You do though” Calum says carefully and slowly. Like he was talking to a child. 

“No, I don’t” he says just as carefully, almost like he was convincing himself.

“Mike” Calum slumped his shoulder. Why isn’t this working? Doesn’t he trust me? I get that he’s probably scared out of his mind but still!

 

Michael takes a deep breath and Calum looks up and their eyes meet. 

 

“Cal, I’m –“and then he falters. For people who don’t know Michael as well would say it’s a slip of the tongue but Calum knew better. He was going to change his mind, his expression of fear. Calum wouldn’t let him. 

“Gay” He finished up for his best friend. 

 

Michael’s face pales and he starts to breathe faster, like he was going to be sick. 

 

“Yeah” Calum says looking around the surprisingly clean hotel room. It was becoming awkward fast and he was afraid if Michael didn’t say something soon then his mouth would start doing the talking without his input. 

 

“H-h-how? W-w-what?” he managed to get out

Calum sighed. “At least you’re not denying it. I went over this like a million times in my head”

 

Michael looked at Calum, he wasn’t shaking and he had some colour back in his face. 

This guy. Michael Clifford, my best friend for life. He didn’t have a ‘type’, he’d date any girl but he mentioned once that he had a preference. Tall, sexy and blonde. Calum suddenly had a thought and wanted to ask if he was attractive to gay men but decided that was a conversation for another time. 

 

The fact that he didn’t tell Calum that was gay did make him feel a bit sad but Calum had no reason to feel that way when he just basically came out FOR Michael. 

 

“How did you find out” Michael asked quietly

“The club before tour started”

Michael’s head whips up so fast it hurt to look at it. He paled and once again looked like he was going to be sick. 

“No one but me noticed, though it wasn’t like you were trying to hide it or anything” Calum rolled his eyes

“What?” Michael asked confusedly

“The blonde with green eyes and a nose ring?” 

 

A lightbulb seemed to go off in Michael’s head as he continued “Look, you know how I feel about love and all the crap”

Michael nodded

 

Calum sighed. “Well, the fact is that, it’s stupid. Love is stupid and pointless”

Michael’s face went blank.

 

“The way you were looking at him” Calum looked away. “I’ve never seen anybody but my parents look at someone like that. And I saw the way he looked at you, like you were a piece of meat or something and you were looking at him so lovingly or whatever and what I’m trying to say is: I think it’s stupid how much you care about someone who couldn’t care about you in that way” 

 

Michael didn’t say anything but his jaw was clenched. 

 

“But, I don’t think you should give up on love. Make that dude see how awesome and cool and nice you are! Make him like you for more than your body”

 

And then Michael started laughing. 

 

Laughing so hard he lost balance and toppled over, tears leaking out of his eyes. 

 

“Oh my god” Michael said still choking on his laughter. “I wasn’t interested in that guy! I was trying to make Luke jealous!”

 

“You were what?!” Calum all but screeched. 

 

“Luke and I have been dating for nearly two years!” Michael wheezed clutching his stomach from laughing so hard. “He kept blowing me off for that Arzaylea chick and like he thought she wanted him as a friend but obviously she wants more than that so I was trying to make him jealous by showing him what he’s missing!”

 

“Oh”

“You sound disappointed”

“It’s just a LOT to take in, in such a short amount of time” Calum admitted “So let me get this straight” Michael snorts.

“I’m anything but that mate” Michael interrupts “We just went through that”

“You know what I mean” Calum grinned pleased that Michael can joke about his sexuality. “So you and Luke are together, all this time you were trying to make him jealous because he kept going out with Arzaylea and it’s been two years?”

“Yeah pretty much” Michael shrugged. 

 

“Wow”

 

The next day, Luke and Michael officially come out to both Ashton and Calum. Turns out Luke was going to Ashton for his relationship problems and Ashton was starting to suspect Luke was gay as well. 

 

They’re still the same boys, just in love and now Ashton and Calum have to get used to walking into a room and seeing the two boys all over each other, sometimes with clothes off (Ashton is still a bit shaken up from that) but it’s okay. They’re in love.

 

Calum’s 100% sure Michael is gay.

 

And that’s okay.


End file.
